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jacob_head9108

Mid century ceiling tiles

12 years ago
The family room in my recently purchased mid century ranch, has a great tiled ceiling. A few of the tiles need to be replaced
Any ideas?????

Comments (26)

  • 12 years ago
    Did they leave you any extras by chance? (Long shot, I'm sure.)

    Love the texture. How big are they? I wonder if you can have some replacements fabricated or worst case scenario, find another style and use them randomly throughout the ceiling so one area doesn't stand out as replaced?
  • 12 years ago
    There is some extra paneling on the wall of the laundry room with that texture. Had thought about trying to gingerly remove it to make replacement tiles.
  • 12 years ago
    Are they made from asbestos? I'd check to make sure before you try to remove tiles as the dust is toxic.
  • 12 years ago
    HI -- Oh dear - these look like siding tiles that were meant for the exterior and that I know were made with asbestos . Please get someone in to test before you do anything . You may have to drywall over them or have a pro remove them . They look like asbestos tiles we had on the exterior of an old house we were fixing up. There was also a wood panel that look like these -- lets hope that is what these are ,-just wood .
  • PRO
    12 years ago
    Great news. I would try to peal them off the laundry walls. If that fails, maybe you could take a piece of the "failed attempt" to a woodworker to reproduce.

    Fab ceiling. Would you share a pix of the room itself?
  • 12 years ago
    HI -- Oh great Jacob -- I so worry about people fixing old houses , you just never know . We had a wall of the wood panel in my childhood home and I know it is no longer . Can you take some pieces from some another area to fill the spaces you need ? I know you will have to be real careful removing any because it's thin and will be very brittle . It's cool looking stuff isn't . This kind of wood panel, would probably sell today if they brought it back . I hope things work out for you !
  • 12 years ago
    My daughter painted these a golden/bronze color with a mid to high gloss...they turned out beautiful.
  • 12 years ago
    Wow! I hope you can get replacements, I love them! Really interesting.
  • 12 years ago
    Goes to show a classic design never truly goes out of style. They do look great. I too, would love to seethe fabulous house these belong to!
  • 12 years ago
    What about randomly substituting some shiny (or burnished) metal cut to that same size? Or glossy painted material to either blend in (white, off-white) or pop out (bright color), depending on the decor in the rest of the room? You might have to relocate some of the existing tile to accommodate your new design but this would allow you to replace as many as needed and still look cohesive.
    Jacob Head thanked ljfq
  • 12 years ago
    That's really quite an interesting ceiling. I live in a mid-century house myself in Tennessee, and the walls of the entire first floor feature a painted wood paneling that looks just like your ceiling, only instead of being cut up into squares they are standard, vertical panels. My great aunt who lived in the home before me said that it was called "combed wood", because it looks like you took a comb and started at the top of the wall and combed straight down. I've asked lots of people and everyone says they've never seen panelling quite like it, so for several years now I've wondered if what I have is unique to the home, or if not one of a kind at least unusual. I'm thinking that it's probably the same stuff that's on your ceiling, though.
    Jacob Head thanked Casey Nicholson
  • PRO
    12 years ago
    Since the design is comprised exclusively of straight lines try the following:
    (1) Since the pattern repeats, get a profile for at least one section. One way of doing this is to find a small gap between the ends of the panels and insert a piece of card stock in the gap and then trace the pattern onto the card stock with a pencil. It will also give you an accurate representation of material thickness.
    (2) Once you have a profile, compare it to what could be created with a good selection of router bits. As I said the pattern consists of repeating straight lines.
    (3) Because this is to be painted when finished the material of preference would be fiberwood or Baltic Birch plywood. Something that has a core free of voids.
    (4) If you use fiberwood, be sure to seal it first with an oil based varnish before using any latex paints on it.
    (5) Don't worry about being perfect. Since the pattern repeats may times, as long as you are close you won't notice. Plus since it is to be painted any errors can be corrected with auto body filler and sanded to the correct profile.
    Jacob Head thanked SEFAC
  • 12 years ago
    Casey and sefac... Very valuable!
  • PRO
    12 years ago
    You could also faux some wood squares with texture paint and a squeegee cut to match the grooves in the tile.Then you could prime over all of it, and paint it or faux it anyway you want. The sky's the limit!
  • Jacob Head thanked spaseminars
  • 12 years ago
    Perfect!!!!!
  • PRO
    11 years ago
    That's the same ceiling that's inside the house I just bought in East Pensacola Heights (mine is just unpainted). I thought I'd never seen it before.
  • PRO
    9 years ago

    Did you have any luck finding more of this tile? I am working with a client now that has this same ceiling tile and we would like to expand it into other rooms? Thank you


  • 9 years ago
    I have a 13×16 room that contains the wood tiles in the celing. I want to remove them carefully. What are they worth?
  • 9 years ago

  • 8 years ago
    It looks like weldtex is the closest match to mine but then I would have to refinish all of them. Anyone have any other ideas or knowledge of age builder, style of home these were installed in so I can locate a matching replacement? Thanks
  • 7 years ago

    I am trying to find 3 of these also I have them in my new house!

  • 7 years ago

    We had them on our kitchen ceiling in our 1954 ranch. There was a panel of the material in the outside storage closet we cut to make squares to cover where the old vent fan was in the kitchen remodel. We left them natural.

  • 2 years ago

    I have been following this thread for awhile. There were two manufactures of these tiles/boards. The original was produced by United States Plywood Corp. with the "Weldtex" brand name. The other manufacturer was Georgia-Pacific Corp (GP). GP was suited for patent infringement. I have the GP product in my home built in 1953 in central North Carolina. I looked for years for GP replacement tiles. The GP tiles are thinner than the Weldtex tiles. The GP tiles are unlabelled on the back (unless I missed it). The Weldtex tiles are stamped "Weldtex". I would suspect that tiles in the SE USA are GP tiles and further west are the Weldtex tiles. I would be interested in others' comments. I finally located original Weldtex tiles, unfortunately they were painted white rather in their original stained condition...I would gladly trade for some GP tiles. I woud like to install ceiling lighting but don't want to violate that tiles without a replacements available (the walls are a cypress panelling and presents the same dilemma).

  • last year

    I just bought a home that looks like it has the same ceiling tiles How many do you need? what are you willing to pay for them?